Sitatunga Private Island Camp and Suite

The Sitatunga Private Island Camp and Suite is set on an idyllic Okavango Island and is a reference to one of the most beautiful antelopes in Africa. Sitatunga Private Island Camp is designed to pay homage to the great fishing cultures of the Okavango. The buildings are designed like a fishing basket, set way up in the thick ebony forest canopy, and built to Great Plains Conservation very high standard.

Sitatunga Private Island Camp is very 'Robinson Crusoe, desert island-ish'. It is designed with a 'salvage' inspired reference, complete with giant basket shapes as a nod to the Bayei and other local Okavango fishing ancestries. Thick shaggy thatch cover canvas roofs and walls. There is thick pole woodwork, feeling like masts salvaged from a shipwreck, but the very spacious inner floorspace is actually some of the largest ever built. Each suite is set up very high in the ebony trees, a traditional way to seek and find safety, take advantage of the views, and rest in the cool shade. And to spot sitatunga antelopes. Each suite has its own lounge and plunge pool.

Sitatunga Camp, entirely surrounded by water, has a blue theme. Vintage Persian carpets, blue trade bead curtains, soft flowing silk and linen curtaining that picks up the breeze complete the interiors. Each suite has a complimentary use professional camera and lens set, which is now synonymous with a Great Plains lodge. High-quality binoculars are also available for guests to use on a complimentary basis.

About the Okavango Delta

The largest inland delta in the world, the Okavango Delta is the most unexpected wonder – water present in a desert. The broad Okavango River sinks into the dry sands of the Kalahari Desert, creating a lush and waterlogged oasis with crystal clear lagoons and channels, reeded islands and fertile floodplains. Dubbed “the river that never finds the sea”, this magical oasis spreads over more than 15 500 km² (almost 6 000 square miles) and yet is so fragile that, if it were denied water for even a decade, it would revert to a semi-desert.

This breath-taking environment constantly adapts and changes with the ebb and flow of the floodwaters that seasonally inundate large portions of the Delta. Although dry for two-thirds of the year, during the winter months the rising floodwaters create a maze of marshes, small wooded islands and shallow lagoons. Water lilies and other aquatic plants flourish in the shallow water, while water birds inhabit the banks of papyrus. As relatively little water can be found elsewhere during this time, the wildlife is drawn to the clear waters of the Delta.

On the edges of the Delta, where land blurs with water, breeding herds of elephant splash gently through shallow channels, the long necks of a family of giraffe materialise slowly out of the Delta skyline and graceful sitatunga antelope hide in the reeds. It is a place where you can wonder at the antics of wild dog in the morning and cast a line for tiger fish in the afternoon, wake in the dappled shade of a forest and enjoy dinner beneath the boughs of a massive baobab at full moon.

Beautiful little reed frogs cling to the water grasses and a variety of incredible bird species make their appearance, from jewelled kingfishers and bee-eaters to ponderous herons and cranes and solemn-looking owls. Red lechwe scamper through the shallows and wild cat, serval and pangolin can be spotted at night, when the moon reflects off the backs of a family of hippo coming out of the water to graze, turning them into slabs of shining silver.